Seoul, South Korea

An-nyeong ha-se-yo!

Today I want to talk about my holidays in South Korea. I spent two weeks there this summer and it was an amazing experience!

So why did I fly to South Korea?
Well, I have an older brother who met a girl, Jinhee, from Seoul about 4 years ago.  She was an exchange student and supposed to be in Austria for only six months but they fell in love. However, Jinhee had to go back to South Korea to finish her studies, but my brother decided to make an exchange semester in Soul to be with her again. After that -- and a long time of planning this through -- she moved to Vienna with him. Since then she has been living in Austria. Last year, he proposed to her and they got married in March in Austria. But Jinhee also wanted to celebrate her wedding in South Korea with her family, so they decided to marry again in August in Seoul and of course we, the closer family, came too!


After a 14 hour flight (without the stopover in Dubai!) we finally arrived at the Incheon Airport in South Korea. The flight was terribly long but at least there were lots of movies to watch and we also had the possibility to order vegan food for me and my sister so there haven't been any problems.
We actually had a lot of fun taking family selfies at the airport! :D

Behind me there is my brother Daniel, who got married.
Then, there's my other brother Wolfgang, my sister Jessica and of course Mum and Dad.

I'll tell you now a few things about the most famous sights because if I told you everything about the whole stay, this blogpost would be reaaaally long :P
But stay tuned because I think at least one more post of South Korea will follow because I want to show you the wedding!! 

The first sight we visited was the Gyeongbokgung Palace. 

Inside there was a park and a lake that looked very nice

Another attraction of Seoul is the Namsangol Hanok Village, where you can see how people lived about 50 years ago. Jinhee told us, that even her grandmother and grandfather had still lived like that. 

Here you an see what the kitchen was like.

That was a typical living room with a table for two people.
They still sit on the floor while eating, but now the tables are bigger!  

The most famous sight in Seoul is probably the Seoul Tower, a television tower. You can either walk up what felt like thousands of stairs or go by cable car, but you will have to wait in a queue for about two hours because there are so many people.

Seoul Tower by night

And of course we also had to go to Gangnam! :D
For those who don't know, Gangnam is actually a city district where all the rich people are living. I'm sure you all know the song by Psy... But did you know that Psy comes from a rather poor family and makes fun of the rich in that song?

Here you can see us dancing "Gangnam Style" :D

Now I'd like to come to a more serious topic, namely the Korean War. My brother Wolfgang and I made a day trip to the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone, on the boarder to North Korea. 

What I have not known before this trip was that South Korea wants to be united with North Korea again, but at a time like this this seems impossible to me...

South and North Korea should be united again

The train station to Pyongyang has already been built

There in the distant you can see North Korea

Speaking of serious issues, there's one more thing I would like to show you. That is the subway or rather the subway stations. The stations are not like ours but there are glass walls between the waiting area and the rails, so that nobody can throw themselves in front of the train.

Suicide is a serious and important issue because South Korea is the country with the highest rate of people committing suicide. Especially students are under a lot of pressure because they have to be very, very good at school and university. Jinhee told us, that the students get up at 5 a.m. to study before school/university or go to extra lessons. Then they go to school/university till the afternoon or evening and then they go to the library where they study until midnight. And the next day is no different.


I think I should come to an end now because this post has become super long :)
As I said before, there will be another blog post about South Korea, specifically about the wedding. There would be so much more to write about!! We have also been to a little island called Jeju where we went to the beach. And I haven't even told you about the food yet! :O 
Okay, I see... There will be a few more posts about this holiday!

Now.... A little glimpse of the wedding to make you more curious... ;)

And the food.... yummy :D 

But hot as hell!

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and drop by again to read my following posts!
Have a nice day!

An-nyeong-hi kye-se-yo!

Larissi ♥